Saturday, September 24, 2011

Here’s a soldier, ready, willing and committed to fight and die for people like Rick Santorum for the freedom to spout their hatred for gay Americans, and Santorum essentially says f-you, go back in the closet.

Moderator: [former senator and presidential candidate, Rick] Senator Santorum, this question stirred a whole lot of controversy on line. It comes from Steven Hill, who is a soldier serving in Iraq.

Stephen Hill: In 2010 when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about who I was because I’m a gay soldier and I didn’t want to lose my job.

My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that’s been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military

[crowd boos]

Santorum: I would say, any type of sexual activity has no place in the military, and the fact that they’re making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people, and give them … and removing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military’s job is to do one thing, and that is to do one thing, and that is to defend our country. We need to give the military, which is all volunteer, the ability to do so in a way that is most effective and protective of our men and women in uniform, and I believe this undermines this ability.

[crowd roars]

Moderator:So what would you with soldiers like Stephen Hill? Now he’s out. When he first submitted this video to us, it was without his face, now he’s out - so what would you do as president?

Santorum: What we’re doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now, and that’s tragic. I would just say that going forward, we would institute that policy, period. That policy would be re-instituted, and as far as people who are in to it, I would not throw them out, because that would be unfair to them because of the policy of this administration. But we would move forward in conformity with what was happening in the past -- which was, sex is not an issue. It should not be an issue. Leave it alone, keep it to yourself, whether you’re heterosexual or homosexual. [crowd roars]

But we would move forward in conformity with what was happening in the past [DADT].

The hell you would! You'd sign an executive order criminalizing any LGBT person found to be in service of their country.

Santorum: the right to privacy doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, and that sodomy laws (Lawrence v Texas)properly exist to prevent acts which undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family"

The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent in the last three years, increasing to 8,129 in 2006 from 4,918 in 2003, Department of Defense records show.

It has offered larger enlistment cash bonuses, allowed more high school dropouts and applicants with low scores on its aptitude test to join, and loosened weight and age restrictions.

It has also increased the number of so-called “moral waivers” to recruits with criminal pasts, even as the total number of recruits dropped slightly. The sharpest increase was in waivers for serious misdemeanors, which make up the bulk of all the Army’s moral waivers. These include aggravated assault, burglary, robbery and vehicular homicide.